


We dreamed a dream

by Amancay



Category: Free!
Genre: Australia, Fluff, M/M, POV changing, harurin - Freeform, rinharu - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-31
Updated: 2017-12-31
Packaged: 2019-02-23 14:40:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13192230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amancay/pseuds/Amancay
Summary: Finding a dream is the first step, but, what happens afterwards?





	We dreamed a dream

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Warzywoo.jj](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Warzywoo.jj).



> Hi! This is my gift for Anonymous Giftee a.k.a Warzywoo.jj , for the HaruRinHaru New Year's exchange
> 
> This story set during the time Rin took Haru to Australia in their last school year. (Episode 12 of Free! Eternal Summer)
> 
> Disclaimer, Free! and all the related franchises that might exist, doesn't belong to me, belongs to KyoAni. I'm just writing for fun.

_He who does not understand a look will not understand a long explanation either_

**Ancient Proverb**

_He was looking at the big swimming pool that was in front of him, but this time it didn’t feel threatening; this time it felt welcoming, challenging. He listened to people cheering and clapping; he closed his eyes and opened his arms. He felt like flying. In the pool his shadow was a bird..._

Then, Haru opened his eyes, he felt Rin's presence in the same bed, he listened his steady breathing. It felt relaxing, it felt right. It was the second night in a row they slept together in the same bed. The first night was when they arrived to Australia, the hotel mixed up Rin’s reservation, and gave them only one bed instead of two.

He still remembered every single word Rin said that night, he was such a romantic, and how could he say all those things just like that? Haru wasn’t able to reply that he felt the same way, when they swam in all those competitions. And now, this second night that just ended, he couldn’t tell him that he found his dream after that visit to the aquatic center.

Truth to be told, he actually found  _two_  dreams. He thought while turning around to watch his friend. Who would have thought he’d find two dreams in the same day.

Though, one of them had to wait, if it ever happened at all. But there were some hints that it might happen someday. Like the weird dream Rin had when they were kids in which the redhead was a policeman and he was a half-fish and they sort of dated. He also remembered perfectly well that Rin mentioned something about biting his neck! As if he could forget something like that!

Also all those silly competitions they had, he couldn't forgive himself from losing the 'bridal style' competition, he was so sure that he was at least two centimeters taller than Rin! He laughed at the thought of that. And blushed, remembering being in his friend’s arms. The blue eyed man shook his head. 'One dream at a time', he thought. Looking at the window he saw that it was some minutes before sunrise.

‘’Good morning Haru,’’ It was nice hearing his voice first thing in the morning. I hope that my laugh didn’t wake him up, he thought before answering ‘’Good morning, Rin’’.

‘’Since you are not rushing like a speed racer to the bathroom, I’m showering first!’’ his friend said, but Haru was faster and reached the bathroom door first. He wasn’t going to lose to him, even if he wasn’t really thinking about it, because if they waste precious time showering, they might miss the sunrise. He was really looking forward to watching it with Rin.

He was thinking of mentioning something about it, but Rin spoke first ‘’Come on Haru! Clearly you won so go ahead and shower, but don’t take forever, otherwise we’ll miss the sunrise’’.

 It was nice to know that Rin was thinking about it too. ‘’Time me! I’ll take less time than you! Less than a minute…starting now!’’. And he rushed inside the bathroom.

Rin standed outside the bathroom, laughing happy that his friend was willing to shorten his precious bathing time in order to watch the sunrise with him. He tried to stop his head from wandering if they could shower together sometime.

‘’2 minutes, that’s  _twice_  than a minute, Haru!’’ Rin teased when he heard the door opening.

‘’ _One_  minute showering and the next minute to brush my teeth, change myself into new clothes and…put some perfume!’’ Why did he have to mention that last thing? He couldn’t think straight when Rin was close.

‘’Tstk, then you should have mentioned something as soon as you finished showering, so I could stop my watch, now  _this_  is your time!’’ he says showing the chronometer. ‘’You smell nice, though’’. He says with a smirk, before entering the bathroom.

 Haru stands outside the bathroom now smiling like an idiot for the whole time his friend was showering. He hoped that he didn’t heard the ‘you too’ he whispered. He completely forgot to set the chronometer he put in his hand before entering the bathroom. He didn’t even realize when he put it there.

So when Rin finished and asked, he answered ‘’you didn’t time it correctly in the first place, Rin’’

‘’We can still settle this, running downstairs to the lobby, then’’ There was no chance they’ll miss a silly competition. ‘’ready… set… GO!’’

They reached the lobby both breathless, but couldn’t define who won because the receptionist called them. ‘’I’ll settle this, Haru, we are grownups, we shouldn’t be running around like silly boys," he sighed. 

But that wasn’t the only reason that she called them actually. She called them because a room was available, one with two beds, and she wanted to know if they were interested in changing rooms. Though Haru couldn’t know that because he couldn’t listen or understand the conversation properly, so he said ‘’I’m sorry Madame’’ bowing.

 ‘’She actually said that there is a new room available if we want to change, I think, since we are leaving tomorrow, there is no need for it, right?’’’. Rin said explaining the situation. He was nervous at first, when they arrived to the hotel the first night and saw that they had to share a bed. He was afraid that he ended up accidentally cuddling with his friend the next morning. That’d be something way beyond embarrassment. But since he managed to behave like a _gentleman_ for not one but _two_ nights in a row, he figured he could tempt his luck one more time. How could Haru be so calm about it? ‘He probably sees me as just a friend’, was his last thought before he listened to his friend’s reply.

Haru did his best effort to pretend he didn’t care, like the thought about sharing the bed again with him wasn’t exciting at all. He hid his excitement saying. ‘’Yes, it’s too much effort to change now.’’ He then turned, looking at the receptionist ‘’Thank you, but no thank you, Madame’’

‘’I thought she was going to kick us out of the hotel’’ Haru said concerned, while they walked to the beach.

But Rin calmed him, smiling and putting an arm around his shoulder, ‘’She was worried that something happened upstairs. Geez! We can’t behave properly when we are together; we are going to be in trouble someday if we keep acting like silly boys. But I think we can’t really help it.’’

Haru nodded smiling, there was no point denying it. He looked at the hand resting on his shoulder and he grabbed it, two could play this game. He wasn’t going to stay calm no more, if he wanted for something to happen.

Rin was surprised, but pleased, that Haru took his hand. They walked like that for a while before finding a nice place to watch the sunrise. They decided to watch it from the coast, to see the sun coming from the ocean. It was one of the best views and he was excited to watch it with him.

Haru looked at Rin, he looked so beautiful in the colors of the Australian morning, with the ocean breeze messing up his hair.

Rin spoke first, he said he wanted to have a 'revenge time' in Australia and that he was meeting his old coach in a few hours.

Haru felt happy for him; he knew how much he suffered last time he was there, not only from what Rin told him, but also from all the things Russell and Lori said the day before. He didn't understand much of the language, but there are some things can be understood anyway. He could tell by the look on their face and by their body language.

That's when he said “I found it Rin!” with a bright smile in his face, '' I want to keep swimming, I want to swim all around the world! I'm going to take care of times for that to happen". Then with a challenging voice he said "so you better watch yourself, Rin."

Rin laughed happily at that last remark; he loved the rivalry between them. He felt so happy that Haru could find a dream of his own. And that he is going to be in the same world on top of that! He started imagining all the Olympic competitions they were going to have, swimming side by side, and standing together in the same podium. He imagined Haru smiling brightly next to him. He’d give anything to see one of those smiles.

 "I will! You aren't going to win so easily!" He replied showing a challenging smile. 

Then he relaxed a little and said "I’m going to meet my coach now, if you want we can meet at this café later, and have a nice breakfast?”.

While Rin was meeting his old coach, he went to the beach again and this time he swam a little; the water was cold because it was winter there, but he didn't mind.

After that, he went back to the hotel and took another shower to remove the sand and salted water. When he arrived at the Café Rin was already there.

This whole trip was so unreal, he really didn’t think Haru'd accept to come and here they were, sitting in some fancy coffee shop in Australia. They’d come such a long way since they met when they were only 12 years old. They’ve been through a lot, he still remembered what a mess he was the year before.  It was nice to be able to help his friend this time around. The blue eyed man sitting in front of him had changed so much since then.

"Two coffee art express" said the waiter while putting two coffee cups in the table.

Haru looked at the Loosey-kun 'floating' in his cup, his eyes sparkled. He imagined Rin showing a picture to the barista asking him to draw it in his cup.

 Rin smiled pleased, he knew how much his friend liked that weird fish. And said "Geez, you made me go through so much trouble ~~" before looking at the shark drawn in his own café.

Haru said "shut up" and looked at the side before drinking from his coffee. "You like doing romantic stuff anyway, right?"

Rin regretted in that instant all those times he said that silly line. "I wasn't talking about that silly fish, you know!”

"Me neither" replied Haru, there was so much that he wanted to say but he just said "thank you" smiling fondly.

He had to drag him all the way to Australia to get one of his best smiles. Those were so rare that he wanted to treasure every second of it. Rin couldn't help himself to feel pleased for being, somehow, the one that caused it.

They stared at each other silently after that, but it wasn't an awkward silence. They just were enjoying each other's company. It was nice.

"Now you owe me _nine_ of your best smiles~~" Rin decided it is a good time to tease Haru a little.

The other man's expression changed to a challenging one. He decides it might be a good time, it is now or never because in a few weeks Rin was going to be living there. "Answer that question and you might get one".

Rin looked confused so Haru asked in English, mimicking Russell's voice “So, Rin, you got a girlfriend back in Japan?” he felt something weird in his stomach at the thought of his friend having a girlfriend.

At first he laughed at Haru's impression of Russell's voice, but he then realized that it was an honest question. "I- what? Geez, what's that about all of a sudden?! You know I don't..." the man sitting in front of him smiled, so he asked back "do _you_ have a girlfriend back in Japan?"

"Water is my lady" Haru answered deadpan, he knew that Rin is going to laugh at that. He really liked to listen to his laugh. Plus, it gave him time to think about what to say next.

“So that's a 'no', then?" Rin asked, he laughed at his answer, as Haru predicted.

"I'm not interested in girls’’. He paused, taking a deep breath; he looked at the menu realizing he still hasn’t asked for anything to eat. And that gave him an excuse to not watch Rin’s face after what he just said. He clearly wasn’t saying anything. Haru still didn't know if it was a good or bad thing, because he had no way of knowing what face Rin was making.

He felt his friend’s hand on his own, and he lowered the menu. Rin was looking at him with a smile on his face. But, he retired the hand as soon as he had Haru’s attention.

Rin wanted Haru to know that everything was right; he thought that the ‘girlfriend question’ Russell made and that he didn’t answer, was an excuse Haru used to come out himself. He wanted Haru to know that it didn’t change anything between them.

Even though Rin felt that something actually changed inside him. He had some hope build up inside him, when he heard that Haru said he didn’t like girls. Because, from Rin’s point of view, it was pretty obvious that he had a serious crush on his friend for a while; he knew that he didn’t hide it very well really. By the way he acted when they were together.

To make matter worse he was pretty sure that everyone knew. Considering that he talked about Haru all the time to anyone that had ears. Just a few days ago, while packing his bag, his friend Sousuke noted the fond look he had while talking about him. And recently, during the dinner they had the day before, with his Australian foster family, Russell and Lori, Haru probably understood most of that conversation, and even if he didn't, he certainly saw Lori winking at them.                                                                      

And on top of that, Rin pretty much opened his heart while he talked in the shared bed, their first night in Australia. He talked about how he remembered the first time they swam together, he said that the felt something while swimming with him. For someone as  _focused_  on water, as Haru was, that had to count for some kind of confession, right?. He stayed there silent, all those things running,  _spinning_  through his mind; wondering if that was in fact a way that Haru had to open the conversation.

 Meanwhile Haru had called for the waiter, at first he wanted to order something to eat, but now that the waiter was actually coming to their table, considering the awkward silence, he was considering asking for the check.

‘’How can I help you?’’, listening to that question brought Rin back to earth from his trance. ‘’Do you want something else, Haru?” he said automatically, without really thinking about it. There were more important things to be thinking about.

Haru tried to decipher Rin’s expression the whole time they were silent.

They stared at each other’s eyes, they both looked like they were to dive into an invisible pool, but weren’t entirely sure if there was water in it.

‘’I apologize, I forgot the glasses of water that were included’’ the waiter suddenly said, realizing that the two men sitting at the table weren’t going to pay him attention, and left.

At the mention of  _water_ , even if it was in another language, Haru took courage and jumped first. ‘’Boys that have girly names but are boys, are a different matter, Rin" That's all he was going to say in that subject, he hoped his friend took the hint. He just said that silly line Rin used when he introduced himself after he changed schools in the middle of the school year.  He hoped he didn’t misunderstood Rin’s thoughts.

"I actually prefer guys that eat so much mackerel that are almost half fish” he answered laughing to relieve the tension.

‘’I was actually about to order a cake, you know!’’ Haru replied pouting. But with a pleased smile on his face.

‘’ Come on! Like you didn’t look for it in the menu, admit it!’’, Rin continued laughing, ‘’I’ll take you to the best place for fish for lunch!’’  

‘’So… it’s a date, then?’’ Haru asked while thinking ‘is this really happening?’

‘’Well, we still have  _a lot_  of things to figure out; you know I’m coming here shortly after Nationals. I just signed for a swimming scholarship…’’ He took a deep breath before saying, with a lump in his throat  ‘’I’m not saying ‘no’, but we need to take this  _really slow_ ’’ He sighed, ‘’ I know this doesn’t sound romantic  _at all_ , but I really care about our friendship, and I don’t want us to rush things because I’m moving here’’.

Of course he wasn’t hoping for Rin to suddenly decide to stay in Japan or anything like that, Haru thought, but it was nice to know that the relationship they had could evolve into something more.

‘’I know that, but it’s good to know that we could be something more, and that we are willing to do something about it. It may take some time, maybe  _a lot_  of time, but all good things are like that. We could start by being  _friendlier_  and open about our feelings.’’ Haru softly said taking his hand. ‘’If you are okay with this’’.

Rin smiled brightly, ‘’we are doing it our way,  _free style’’_

Haru laughed happy, seeing Rin smile like that and hearing him teasing, made him relax. He felt a heavy weight leaving his chest and some butterflies starting to fly inside him.

‘’I’m going to show you how romantic I can be!’’. Haru said, and to prove his point, he lifted up Rin’s hand softly, and kissed it.

Rin’s hand felt ticklish under Haru’s lips. It felt nice to be _friendlier_ , he thought, while tracing his fingers softly through the corner of his now _more_ than friend’s lips.

Some warm heat invaded the atmosphere around them, like spring arrived all of a sudden. They both forgot they were in a public place, so they stayed there for a while in their own world softly caressing each other, and giggling like two lovebirds.

Haru made an origami flower with the paper napkin and put it next to Rin’s ear. Making Rin laugh loudly, ‘’hahaha! So…you are really romantic, but you don’t have to be embarrassing too, at least not in public! Geez! hahaa’’.  When he finally stopped laughing he added, ‘’You know what we should do?, since there are only a couple of hours difference, between Tokyo and Sydney, we could have Skype ‘video dinners’ every day’’, with the origami flower still tangled in his ear, though.

‘’It suits you’’ Haru teased, pointing at the flower. Then said ‘’It’s a nice idea, Rin’’.

They spent the rest of the day sightseeing, Rin managed to take a lot of pictures of Haru, who put the same deadpan expression in every single one of them, just to tease Rin.

They both felt like something had changed between them, like they could finally be free to do what they really wanted to do. Specially Haru, who was slowly beginning to show more physical affection towards Rin now.

Rin on the other hand felt that it was a really bad timing for them, now that he could see, _feel_ , this other side of Haru. This cuddly, romantic, side. He was going to be a thousand miles away.

They could still make it work, of course. They were both so stubborn and headstrong, that if they really wanted the relationship to work, they’ll make it work. And he was sure of it, because in the five years they knew each other so far, they’ve already survived hard times. Becoming both stronger and determinate in the process.

‘’Gray hair and wrinkles will definitely suit you, Haru’’ He whispered out of the blue, looking at the ceiling of the hotel bedroom, picturing an old age Haru in his mind.

Haru laughed softly, thinking about the implications of what Rin just said. The thought of an old age Rin crossed his mind before saying. ‘’Good night, Rin’’. And he placed a little kiss on his lips.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy New Year! Hope you liked it! I chose the coffee date because I was really looking forward to it since the movie was announced, and after finding out that it was actually part of the opening, my head started to think what they could be talking about. So, when I saw that prompt, it felt like a good idea to do a little fic about it.


End file.
